


Melancholic

by choerryonce



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Depressing, F/M, Oneshot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:35:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25918180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choerryonce/pseuds/choerryonce
Summary: Leo ends up on the island of Ogygia by accident, and while he and Calypso seemed to despise each other at first. They eventually fall in love. But he must return to his friends and the Argo II. A look into Leo's thoughts and feelings as he leaves Ogygia and reunites with his friends in Malta! Oneshot.
Relationships: Calypso/Leo Valdez
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	Melancholic

**Author's Note:**

> A / N: Hello everyone! Like all great stories, this one was written at 12:30 am. My best ideas really seem to come when I should be sleeping. Anyway, I had just finished House of Hades and was feeling angsty and kind of in a caleo phase so I wrote this! I usually don’t write oneshots, but this was actually really fun to write and now I don’t have to feel the pressure of updating. Yay! Anyway, thanks to woollycat22 for being one of my unofficial betas for this story!
> 
> Credit for cover art goes to viria.tumblr.com.
> 
> Also thanks to Tame Impala’s album The Slow Rush and various TWICE b-sides for helping me write this!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don’t own anything except my ITZY albums. Please don’t try to take them.
> 
> Enjoy!

Shit. 

He was in love with her.

But how?! He barely knew her! 

Sure, her cinnamon scent lingered for what seemed like days, and the way her silky sheet of hair danced across her back was mesmerizing, but barely knew her, and they had hated each other ever since he crashed into Ogygia. No, that wasn’t true. They grew to be fond of each other’s company - very fond, in fact. Hours spent working in his makeshift forge, her natural talent for working with metal impressing him more and more each day. He had never met a girl who he had worked so effortlessly with; they made a perfect team. 

He remembered his dream to open Leo and Calypso’s Garage: Auto Repair and Mechanical Monsters and laughed. Even though the idea had been created only a couple of days before, the thought seemed far away, like a distant memory from Leo’s childhood. That had been the first day they worked together in the forge. Her hands flew over the celestial bronze, weaving like it was no big deal. Leo had never seen someone work as fast as she had; not even the rest of the kids from the Hephaestus cabin could compete with her. 

They had had dinner that night, a simple dish of (you guessed it) stew and cider on the beach near Leo’s forge. Leo knew he had only a few more nights there on Ogygia, but he didn’t want it to end. He hadn’t realized it, but his desperation to get off the island was gone - in that moment, he only wanted to stay there with Calypso. He thought she looked better in the jeans and t-shirt instead of the sleeveless dress she usually wore. It made her look more, well, human, and not so much like the immortal daughter of a Titan. And she looked beautiful. Well, she always looked beautiful. But sitting on that beach, the wind gently blowing over her hair, a smile spread across her lips, Leo thought she had never looked more gorgeous.

Once the raft appeared, it took Leo a few minutes to put two and two together (like always): if the raft appeared only for guys Calypso was in love with, then that must mean that she was in love with Leo. The idea freaked Leo out. As soon as he realized it though, he knew he felt the same way. But that wasn’t how it was supposed to work. It was always supposed to be Leo falling for a girl way out of his league (which Calypso definitely was), and then her rejecting him and him being sad for a bit. His corny jokes and *effortless* charm wasn’t actually supposed to work. But somehow, it had on Calypso. 

And the kiss. She grabbed his face in her hand and pulled his lips to hers. His brain was freaking out, but his body seemed to know what to do. He leaned into it, putting one hand in her hair. Her lips were soft and tasted like sweet cider. She brought her hands around the back of his head to have her arms rest on his shoulders. He would never forget what that felt like. 

As soon as the raft drifted away from the pristine island, a sadness and determination filled Leo. Heartbreak. He was going to rescue Calypso from that prison, and they could be together. Didn’t he at least deserve that? He had been through so much, he had had such a rough childhood. He always felt like the seventh wheel - as Gaea had put it - on the Argo II as everyone else was part of a couple. Couldn’t he at least be with someone who loved him? Calypso had said herself that it was against the rules for any man to find Ogygia twice, but what did Leo have if not complete disregard for the rules?

As he made the journey on the delicate raft, with the circuit board he and Calypso had spent so many hours working on, his thoughts were filled only with her. It was like his mind went into replay mode: every conversation they had, every interaction, was played back in his head. She was burned into his brain: if he closed his eyes for only a second, an image of her would appear in his mind that was so high res he could see every freckle on her face, pinpoint every eyelash. He could hear her laugh clearly; he wondered if he’d ever hear a more beautiful sound. 

He knew that what he felt for Calypso was different from what he had felt for so many other girls over the years. Leo had a weakness for awesome cute girls like Hazel, but all the crushes he had had before now seemed insignificant. A physical aching filled him as he drifted away, a pain deep in his stomach. 

After what seemed like an eternity, Leo pulled into a dock. He had no clue where he was, but she said the raft would take him wherever he needed to go - it seemed implausible that he could’ve needed to go anywhere that wasn’t where she was. He chose a spot out back, but still in plain sight. There would be no chance that the Argo II couldn’t see him there. But the others might not arrive for hours, so he decided to explore the city above.

It was pretty. The architecture was stunning, worthy of Annabeth's admiration. There were beautiful buildings and some nifty terraces - it was reminiscent of Rome. But it wasn’t particularly interesting to Leo. Nothing seemed particularly interesting to Leo. Maybe that’s why he decided to do something completely out of character for him: he bought a cup of coffee. 

He would later wonder why he did it. He was very aware of the fact that he did not enjoy the taste of coffee. But he had barely slept all night and would need sustenance of some shape or form. He chose one of many coffee shops in the little village and ordered a latte - he knew that lattes had more milk, and that seemed the most appealing to Leo, although not much seemed appealing to Leo at that moment. He fished some coins out of his pocket - miraculously, the barista accepted it even though Leo didn’t know what currency they were - he had deduced from signs that he was somewhere in Europe, but not much else. 

He sat at a table at the cafe overlooking the pier. His hands lay still on the table in front of him, devoid of their usual nervous energy and need to be tinkering. No clever or funny - trademark Valdez-ish, to say - observations about the city came to mind as he studied his surroundings. He felt calm - no, not calm. Melancholic. He disliked coffee for its strong, bitter taste, but now it seemed to taste like nothing at all. The aching was still there, only dulled by his tiredness and a brief surge of adrenaline coming from the coffee. Strangely, his eyes seemed to be at a loss for tears. He tried to keep them open as much as possible because even if he closed them for a nanosecond she would pop back into his brain. 

He barely registered the Argo II pulling into the port. When he saw the familiar bronze head of his favorite metal dragon, Festus, a glimmer of hope appeared in his heart. But it didn’t last long, and the arrival of the ship didn’t seem to matter that much to Leo. He had spent so many nights hoping only to see it again, but now it seemed only mildly significant to Leo. But they were still his friends, and he had missed them, so he watched them intently as they disembarked: Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel, and the one and only Coach Hedge. A flicker of a smile spread across his lips. They seemed to spot him and started to head up to the cafe. He took another sip of coffee and set the cup on the table. He almost didn’t notice when Piper tackled him with a hug. He willingly reciprocated and greeted the rest of his friends. He knew they could tell something was off about him, especially Jason. Jason glanced at Leo with a concernedly curious look in his eyes, and then leaned in. “Hey, man,” he said. “What happened?” Leo glanced around the table and then looked back at Jason, as if to say, Not here. Not in front of everyone. 

Sitting there with all his friends, Leo should have been relieved and ecstatic. He should be cracking bad jokes and puns, and making commentary as he listened closely to what had happened while he was MIA. But none of that seemed to matter anymore. There seemed to only be one thing in this universe that mattered anymore: Calypso, the girl Leo Valdez loved.


End file.
